Workbench Vise & Finish, My Daughters Workbench

J's customer Creations is sponsored by bits and bits use the code J Bates to save 10% off your next router bit or CNC bit purchase at bits bits.com in the last video I made this workbench for my daughter it's a white oak top workbench with popular base through mortise and Tenon Joiner throughout and in this video I'm going to finish up the final details put some finish on it and install a vise first thing that I need to do is flush trim the tenin to the adjacent faes and to do that I'm using using a small trim router with a/4 in upcut spiral bit and I'm installing the largest diameter base plate that I have for this particular router then I can set the depth so that when it's resting on top of this piece of plywood it just barely snags a piece of paper uh between the bit and the actual material top or the the workbench top then I can use this piece of plywood that has a hole in it which is it's actually the insert plate for my lever router lift out of my table sawt wing and this just elevates the router and the router can straddle back and forth and trim away the Tenon to a very precise height uh this is super convenient and super handy I didn't have to make another jig just a piece of plywood with a hole in the middle of it there's four of these tenin on the top surface because all four of the legs go all the way through the thickness of the top and then all four of the Rails go through all four of the legs each side of the rail so there's eight on bottom four on top 12 of these total that that need to be uh trimmed nice and flush and this workbench is sized small enough to where you just easily just tip it and roll it so you have a horizontal is surface on top as I'm in the process of rolling this around it it makes sense to just go ahead and start sanding the base as I go and this case I'm I'm not trying to be perfect with this I'm only using 80 grit I know the Bas is going to be painted I'm not worried at all about swirls or making this perfect that I just want smooth surfaces with all of the basee cleaned up is I can focus my attention back on the top and I need to trim up the perimeter of the top surface I cut the perimeter of this out on the CNC machine when I did all the joinery and I did that so I was absolutely sure and perfect of the exact width so that the uh the the base joinery aligned with the top so I anyway I've got a bunch of overhang that I'm going to use the track saw to cut off first on each end then I can use this this big flush trim bit in the handheld router now this flush trim bit I really really like because it's got material behind each one of the cutting edges which prevents a super aggressive bite it's kind of like a depth stop it's not going to let you go too crazy at once it's also like a if I'm not mistaken 7/8 of an inch diameter so it's it's a pretty pretty big bit and it handles this overhang with absolutely no problem whatsoever I did get a little a little bit of burning here and there and when you get burning that means you're either spinning too fast with the router bit or you're just traveling too slow with the router and in my case I was just traveling too slow around the corners finally the top can be sanded and here I want to vent a little bit of frustration so this is the festival Rotex it's not a cheap sander by any means and when I first got it it was a little bit of a learning curve to to sand with it I've had it for a few years now to to sand and and make sure everything's nice and needs and you know just get the swirls out and for the first little while I've had pretty darn good results with it but as this sander gets older and older it's a swirl machine I have no idea why it's starting to produce more and more swirls the older it gets well that sounds like it's wearing out right well for this price I'm not a production shop I just you know essentially a hobby woodworker who films what I'm doing why is this thing producing more and more and more swirls the older it gets now it's prob there's a variable here right there's an idiot donkey who's running this particular machine but I didn't used to have this problem and now I do have this problem so I don't know what the deal is and if and if it's just a s situation where the sander is getting worn out and needs repair that's pretty darn crappy because it's incredibly expensive and like I said I'm not a production shop I'm not using these day in day out so I don't know what the deal is I've tried so many different tutorials so many different sequences of route of paper whether it's Rotex mode random orbit mode High suction on the extractor low suction on the extractor different types of sandpaper Brands themselves this thing no matter what is just a swirl machine now and it's incredibly frustrating so I'm only using this to do like rough work this is a workbench top so I'm not worried about swirls or anything like that but man talk about not being able to give a thumbs up I really don't like this particular sander and I'm stuck with it because it's just so darn expensive going from something expensive to something dirt cheap here these are my saw horses that I made in 2013 and if you guys want a little bit of a laugh and want to see one of my really old videos I'll have a link down in the description you can check out these particular saw horses I can't recommend them enough this is the same set that I made in the video and I've had these like I said from 2013 stored outside in the elements half of their life stored inside the shop half of the life they're they're a Workhorse they they they're a tank such a wonderful and easy design on saw horses check it out if you haven't already done so this workbench is for my daughter and I initially planned on painting it tuskin red because i' I've got a lot of this particular color and I really really like this tusting and red but it occurred to me that hey this is my daughter's workbench maybe she should pick it out so we took her to the store and I told her you know just pick out a color Ive got a project I'm working on and I just can't figure out what color I want to use so use your use your imagination pick out your favorite color and of course I knew it was going to be a blue because she's she loves blue she picked out this this sky blue color and when she picked it out I was like H that's I don't think that's going to look good but again this is hers not mine turns out that it looks really really really good so uh I like it and I'm glad that she picked it out so we started painting the inside and then working our way to the outside and after the paint was done uh I wanted to start working on putting the visce on this is a 6 and 1/2 yeah 6 and 1/2 in Irwin Vie just a inexpensive vie that I found at my local Lowe's uh first step is to separate the front and back jaw so I can use the back jaw by itself clamped to the workbench and properly locate the holes drill out the holes and insert the screws to get this thing mounted to the workbench a little detour from that Vice really quick I I wanted to add a note of some kind to this bench something personal that my daughter can stumble upon and that she can I guess read at a later date and look back on when she's you know older and can appreciate this a little bit more of course she's five and she can read really really well she'll probably read this right now but I wanted it to be subtle not necessarily like a you know a Sharpie marker on the bottom side of the workbench just a a subtle note that would kind of blend in uh but her curious mind who you know seeking out these small little details she likes to do that she's going to stumble upon this I'm not going to tell her about it uh so I used the laser engraver to cut out an acrylic tag acrylic note I guess you could say and I nailed it to the inside of one of the legs like I said this is one of those things that if you're not looking for it it's going to blend in but the instant that she starts to get explorative on this workbench and really start looking around she's going to find it and she's going to probably read it and and hopefully it sinks in and it's just a anyway it's just a good little message that I wanted to leave for her I had an extra piece of this white oak that I used for the top that just wasn't long enough to use in the top so I set it aside knowing that I was going to put a bench vise on it so this is the material that I'm starting with for the jaws of the Vie I sized the pieces for the front and back jaw to be 12 in in length and the remaining material I can use for that little Gap in between the rear jaw and the workbench itself part of me wanted to just leave this open because it really doesn't matter uh but but I I I don't know I just think it's going to look a little bit cleaner if I fill that Gap with an additional board to locate the mounting holes for the wooden rear jaw the Vise needs to be removed from the workbench and I pushed all these pieces or pushed the Jaws to the left because I I figured you're going to get a little bit of benefits by having the Jaws extend to one side that way you can clamp longer vertical pieces uh but left to right which side I don't think it really matters I thought it had better visual continuity by being being right in front of the leg which is on the left side of the vice so I pushed everything off to the left and my reference point was I was making sure that they overhang the right side by 1 in so once the the rear jaw has the holes located and drilled for the mounting screws I can put the thinner piece in there and then just trace the rear Cast Iron Jaw and that needs to be removed and to do that I use the band saw I almost forgot about this step and there's two holes that need to be drilled in the front of the rear jaw and that's just access holes so you can screw the cast iron part to the workbench with the rear jaw screwed into place I can put the the filler piece on the back side and Mark and cut the ends so that it's cut to the appropriate length and then just a little bit of glue and some squeeze clamps we'll let this set up enough so that I can mount it to the workbench of course the front jaw is the easiest just put it in place and secure it with a couple screws and then we can think about how I'm going to flush trim the top of the jaws with the top of the workbench my first thought was to use the whole router setup the way I did with the tenin uh but I decided to not do that because this amount of material turned into dust just sounds unnecessary so let's just cut it off instead well if you're going to cut it off the first saw of choice would be a flush trim saw handheld flush trim saw but I didn't want to scratch up the top of the workbench in I've already sanded it so I decided to try one of these oscillating tools and you know what this worked way better than I thought it would a lot faster than I thought it would and also the the resulting surface was a lot cleaner and flat than I thought it would so I've never used one of these oscillating tools for a bulk J or bulk cut like this this is something that this tool is something that I've just used for a little quick cut here and there nothing nothing like this but yeah pleasantly surprised the surface was good and probably better than what I would have achieved with a handheld saw but it's not perfect I didn't expect it to be perfect so a few passes with the sander and we're back down to just beautiful swirls I don't like rounding over the edges on a workbench I just think it needs to be as as big and flat and square as possible but I also don't want splinters so I'm just going around the edges with with some I think it's 150 grit sandpaper just to break the edges and just to stop the little Pokey splinters as you uh run your hand across the edge nothing more than that for a finish on a workbench it's recommended to not use a film finish of any kind like a polyurethane because the film finish is going to promote uh the pieces slipping around right you want something like an oilbased finish that's not going to have that slippery surface and it's just going to be as close to a wood on wood contact or no finish at all uh but for me in this case I'm my daughter's five she's not really going to Value work holding right now uh who's to say she ever will uh but I'm more valuing protecting the top from paints and and markers and all kinds of stuff that she's inevitably going to put on this thing so I went to my finishing Supply cabinet to try and find a middle ground and I found an old bottle of Danish oil that's been in the back of my cabinet for way too long so might as well just you know check two boxes at once and use up a finish that that probably probably all things considered is an old bad finish to begin with after about 20 minutes or so it's it's it's soaked up as much as it's going to soak up so you wipe up the extra and then sit back and think does this look good or do I not like the way that this looks and in my opinion I really really like the way that this looks which is it's cool to to to have that realization because I was picturing a red workbench base and I thought it would look really really great but I'm glad I had that moment of you know what this is hers let her pick out a color she picked out this blue and I thought to myself soon as she picked it out I was like I knew it was going to be blue but I just can't picture it I don't think this is going to look good you get it done and it's like wonderful it looks pretty darn good so sometimes you got to take a step back and let someone else's perspective kind of change things for you uh for you to to actually see something that you otherwise wouldn't see I'm glad she picked out this color I think it looks great uh that's it for this video if you're interested in the files for this particular project I have a SketchUp file as well as all of the CNC files if you want to cut all the joinery out on a CNC machine you can do that um feel free to use that information to make as many of these workbenches as you want and sell them for profit go ahead that's wonderful uh that's it for this video you guys take care have a great day and I'll talk to you in the next one